


Introduction to Hylitics

by Elymais



Series: Hylitics 101 [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Gen, Pseudo-Documentary, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:41:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29311263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elymais/pseuds/Elymais
Summary: Required reading for Hylitics 101
Series: Hylitics 101 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2154651
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	Introduction to Hylitics

**On the Origin Of and Relationships Between the**  
**HYLITIC LANGUAGES**  
**up to the Hyrulean Civil Wars**

* * *

The **Hylitic languages** (in dated literature referred to as the **Hyrulean languages** ) are a family of languages originating in prehistoric Hyrule and currently distributed throughout it. The Hylitic family has been a potent linguistic presence shaping the cultural landscape of Hyrule since at least the Stone Age.

All modern Hylitic languages are thought to be descended from **Proto-Hylitic** — an hypothetical, unattested language which was likely spoken throughout the area of Hyrule Field during the Hyrulean Neolithic (in traditional Hylian historiography, this is identified with the _Era of the Goddess_ ). The material culture most strongly identified with this proto-language is the **Daphnean culture**. For reasons that are unclear, there was a mass depopulation of the late Daphnean material culture in multiple directions, beginning the divergence of the Hylitic languages into at least two branches:

  * The eastward and southward dispersal of Proto-Hylitic speakers into the modern regions of Faron, Necluda, and Lanayru resulted in the genesis of the **East Hylitic Languages** (of which _Zonai_ is the most historically significant and well-attested member). This branch was heavily influenced from its inception by the non-Hylitic **Ancient Sheikah language** , and is the earliest with written attestation.
  * The westward dispersal of Proto-Hylitic speakers into the Tabantha region gave rise to the **West Hylitic Languages** (of which _Hylian_ is the most prolific and widely spoken member). This is the only branch to which any extant languages belong.
  * An hypothesised **South Hylitic** branch is postulated to have left a substrate in the Gerudo langauge. As very little is known or can be conjectured at present about the South Hylitic branch, it will be omitted from this overview.



The **East Hylitic Languages** (in dated literature referred to as the **Zonaïtic languages** ) came into being through the cultural symbiosis of the East Hylitic-speaking peoples and the Ancient Sheikah. The East Hylitic peoples adopted many cultural traits of the Sheikah, including their written script, and bilingualism was common. Eventually, an East Hylitic vernacular would emerge as the common language of both the East Hylitic peoples and the Sheikah, though the influence of the **Ancient Sheikah language** is evident in the morphological, phonological and syntactic changes that set East Hylitic apart from the rest of the Hylitic family.

With a linguistic area stretching from modern Akkala to Faron during the Hyrulean Chalcolithic (corresponding to the _Era of the Sky_ in traditional Hylian historiography), the East Hylitic vernacular(s) became the most important language of commerce throughout Hyrule. One particular tribe, the **Zonai** , would rise to prominence for their adeptness in trade, ritual, and warfare. Although the eponymous **Zonai Ruins** are located in modern Faron, and this was the homeland of the early Zonai, their influence would expand far beyond the Faron region by the mid-Chalcolithic as other Hylitic and Sheikah tribes either accepted or were compelled to accept their hegemony. The foundation of new Zonai settlements from the ground up in the far west and north of Hyrule would spread their influence even further, making the **Zonai language** the most important _lingua franca_ throughout Hyrule at the time.

Far to the west, the Proto-Hylitic speakers who migrated to the uplands of Tabantha were meanwhile developing their own vernacular(s), isolated from most external influences by the mountain ramparts. Throughout the Chalcolithic, the West Hylitic peoples (among whom were the Ancient Hylians) would remain in relative obscurity, appearing only in Zonai and Sheikah references. The archaeological record of the West Hylitic people, however, shows developments in technology not found in the East — most notably the **spoked wheel** , which allowed the construction of lighter, swifter vehicles to be drawn over distances by draught animals — and the _intentional_ manufacture of **arsenical bronze** , which punctuated the Chalcolithic period. It should be noted that _some_ arsenical bronzes were manufactured throughout the area of Modern Hyrule even during the Chalcolithic, but their distribution is so sparse and random that it is far more likely that older arsenical bronzes were _unintentionally_ manufactured via the use of copper ores heavily saturated with native arsenic rather than by the addition of arsenic during smelting. Also worth mentioning is the development of the **Sky Script** , which has be found on numerous small inscriptions throughout Hebra.

The Hyrulean Bronze Age (traditionally identified as the _Era of Chaos_ ) begins shortly after arsenical bronze artifacts begin popping up in West Hylitic archaeological sites in Hebra, when another massive migration took place — this time in the opposite direction, as the West Hylitic peoples once more abandoned their settlements en masse to return to Central Hyrule. This **Great Migration** would permanently alter the cultural and linguistic landscape of Hyrule in its wake.

The West Hylitic migrants founded new settlements in the sparsely populated Hyrule Field as well as settling in established Zonai and Sheikah settlements. Among these tribes were the **Ancient Hylians** , named for their legendary antecessor and primary deity, **Hylia**. Although the Zonai and Sheikah at large considered the West Hylitic peoples to be barbaric and backwards, as evidenced by their records, conflicts between the Easterners and Westerners were usually decided in favour of the incoming Westerners due to their use of arsenical bronze in the manufacture of weapons and armour. Those settlements west of the River Hylia that were not razed were assimilated by the Westerners. In spite of the sudden reduction of the Zonai language area, the language would remain dominant in the Necluda, Faron, and Lanayru regions — furthermore, many West Hylitic records and artifacts from the Hyrulean Bronze Age (including all stelai manufactured before the **Interloper Wars** ) are written in **Hylio-Zonai** , a mixed language with West Hylitic grammatical features but primarily Zonai vocabulary. The Zonai themselves would become one of the Ancient Hylians' primary rivals.

The **Ancient Hylians** themselves were considered even by contemporaries to have played a particularly pivotal role in the resettlement of Central Hyrule (themselves settling the Great Plateau), and rose to a position of cultural dominance among the West Hylitic peoples. During the early Hyrulean Bronze Age, they are distinguished from other West Hylitic peoples by certain cultural practices:

  * Monolatrous worship of their legendary ancestor **Hylia** (note that it was not a particularly uncommon practice for tribes at the time to be defined by their religious practices)
  * Ear-pointing; it's not known exactly when this practice originated, but by the migration period the Ancient Hylians are already distinguished in Zonai and Sheikah sources with epithets such as "leaf-eared", and early depictions of Ancient Hylians show them with pointed ears even as a point of distinction against other West Hylitic peoples.



Though many West Hylitic peoples would settle in Central Hyrule, founding towns and villages, a great many more would continue to live pastoral lifestyles. The frequent conflicts and constantly shifting political atmosphere between the disunited Hylian, Zonai, and Sheikah city-states meant people were frequently displaced and a large, multiethnic itinerant population remained a constant throughout the Hyrulean Bronze Age.

The final stage of the Hyrulean Bronze Age is defined by the **Interloper Wars** — a series of destructive conflicts that are often framed in popular memory as simply the existential struggle between the Ancient Hylians and the Zonai. In reality, allegiances were not so clearly delineated — notably, the **Kakariko** , an influential Sheikah (and thus traditionally Zonai-aligned) tribe consistently intervened in favour of Hylian interests at the expense of the Zonai, while the **Ordonites** , a West Hylitic tribe, maintained cordial relations with their Zonai neighbours throughout most of the period. In even other instances, the Ancient Hylians and Zonai found themselves allies in wars against external powers. By this point, conflicts were no longer readily and decisively ended by superior equipment, as by this point both **tin bronze** manufacturing and **spoke-wheeled, horse drawn chariots** had become generalised throughout Hyrule.

A consequence of these conflicts was the **Hylian League** , an alliance of city-states and tribes in southern Hyrule Field and the Great Plateau that emerged for common defence spearheaded by the Ancient Hylians; another consequence was the forcible expulsion of the Zonai from their former heartland following the razing of their cities. The end of the Bronze Age in Hyrule is traditionally punctuated by the foundation of the **Kingdom of Hyrule** and the consecration of the **Temple of Time** at the foot of Mount Hylia, as well as the development of iron smelting techniques which occurred at around the same time.

In contrast to the prior era, the Iron Age in Hyrule is known in traditional Hylian literature as the _Era of Prosperity_ and is marked by the flourishing of Hylian cultural and economic influence throughout modern Hyrule. The young kingdom's optimal position along the Gem Road, a trading route that linked the Goron mines in Eldin with Gerudo artisans to the southwest of Hyrule, enriched its coffers and made it a regional power. Throughout Necluda and Faron, former strongholds of the Zonai Language, new West Hylitic vernaculars sprang up both from contact with itinerant Hylian pastoralists and merchants, and from the deliberate replacement of Zonai-sympathetic institutions by the Hylians during the Interloper Wars. These new **Necludan Languages** were noticeably different from the mainstream **Old** **Hylian Language** which had coalesced out of the West Hylitic dialects spoken in Central Hyrule, and had limited mutual intelligibility with it; they are sometimes referred to as the **Neo-Zonai Languages** for their geographic and cultural predecessors, despite not being descended from Zonai. Nevertheless, these new languages were heavily influenced by Zonai and saw an influx of Zonai vocabulary in their early years.

Although the Zonai language had more or less been the lingua franca of Hyrule up to the Interloper Wars, prior to the Hyrulean Iron Age no tribe, city-state, or other polity would ever (to the knowledge of present scholarship) formally declare or recognise any "official" language by law in the modern sense; this changed shortly after the foundation of the Kingdom of Hyrule, which would recognise the "Hyrulean tongue" as the only language of business, government, and religion within its sphere of influence. Old Hylian became widespread as language for poetry and prose, and soon scholars from Tanagar Canyon to the Necluda Sea were writing their works in Old Hylian. **Mudora** , a Sheikah philosopher, would write her best known work, _**On the Hylian Tongue and its** **Laws**_ (colloquially known as the _Book of Mudora_ ), during this time; it is the oldest known treatise on Hylian grammar and forms the opening bracket of the era of _Classical Hylian_ as a prestige dialect. Mudora's work was so influential that many other scholars and influential people, including Hylian Royalty, reference it in their own writings.

This period in history is punctuated by the collapse of the **Kakariko** , traditionally the eastern allies of Hyrule, and the capture of their power vacuum by the **Yiga** , another Sheikah tribe traditionally opposed to the Hylians. Those Sheikah nobility who remained sympathetic to the Hylians were banished, and another era of aggressive military campaigning began, corresponding to the _Force Era_ of traditional Hylian historiography. In the wake of these campaigns by the Hylians, the local authorities and infrastructure were once again uprooted and replaced with Hylian nobles whose loyalty to Hyrule was more assured. Additionally, many "mercenary peoples" who aided the Hylians in resubjugating the eastern regions, such as the **Zora** , were granted suitable domains to settle in exchange for a guarantee that they would rise to arms against Hyrule's enemies.

At the end of these conflicts, numerous Hylian-aligned, Hylian-ruled polities dotted the regions of Necluda and Lanayru — the most notable of these being **Holodrum** , **Labrynna** , and **Tolemac**. Another period of peace would ensue. Once again Hylian was the prestige dialect throughout modern Hyrule, but in order to maintain stability, concessions were made and local Necludan languages were used in bilingual inscriptions alongside Hylian. This would have an influence on the way Hylian was spoken, and though the period of Classical Hylian is considered to continue up to the **Hyrulean Civil Wars** , the writers of the time would remark on what they saw as the "deterioration" of the prestigious tongue described by Mudora.


End file.
